The word "law" is often on the lips of the Christian Scientist. Very often it is coupled with the words "moral" or "spiritual;" then, moral or spiritual law is referred to. And when the term "law" is made use of, people are usually thinking of some rule of action which has behind it, giving it support, a recognized authority. The authority behind law must be admitted; otherwise, the law would be invalid—no law. Thus, in civic, as in national affairs, when a legislative body accredited of the people makes laws, these laws are respected. It is recognized by every intelligent person how serious an affair it is to try to render null and void any law which has been enacted after deliberate consideration by the authority responsible for it.
Every honorable citizen of every nation has regard for the laws of his country. Some of these laws, it is true, may be far from ideal; but the well-meaning and well-doing citizen respects his nation's laws, while he may labor, it may be, along legitimate lines to amend those which are weak or faulty, in order to secure the utmost measure of justice and equity to one and all alike who are his fellow-citizens. Laws will never be lightly set aside by the honorably minded, because they know that in civilized communities these have been drawn up and passed by those who, at the time, reflected the highest sense of right to which it may then have been possible to give expression.
Civil law had its origin in moral sense, that sense which is found more or less developed in every community, and which itself has its basis in divine Principle, God. The discovery of moral law undoubtedly must have been gradual, just as the discovery of the nature of God Himself was gradual. Bit by bit, men, through the trials of experience, found out the effects of wrong thinking and wrong doing, and of right thinking and right acting upon themselves and their fellow-men; and in process of time, they were able to formulate certain rules of action, which, if obeyed, meant to themselves and to others a greater measure of peace, harmony, and well-being. Thus must the Ten Commandments, that wonderful compendium of moral law, have originated. And nothing is more certain than that Moses and those who followed him out of the bondage of Egypt heard, in every one of these Commandments, the voice of God. To them, every one of the "Thou-shalt-nots" sounded as a direct command, and was a definite law to be obeyed. Each one of them, they recognized, was worthy of all respect, because each was based on Truth, divine Principle; and obedience to them all was bound to result in good to the obedient, since God, good, supported them. The psalmist, referring to "the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly," said that "his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."
It is perfectly certain, then, that all genuine law, when obeyed, results in good to the individual who obeys it, because it has its basis in divine Principle. Contrariwise, whatever rule of action is not based on Principle has no law supporting it, and must be valueless. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 259) Mrs. Eddy says: "Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the nature of God, is not law, but is what Jesus declared it, 'a liar, and the father of it.' God is the law of Life, not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not of evil." Here Mrs. Eddy identifies God with real law.
Now, in thinking of God we have to remember His allness: God is all-inclusive being. Hence, He is at once the lawgiver including the law, cause including causation, cause including effect. It is only we, with our limited outlook, who separate these, and speak of God, the divine lawgiver, as if He were distinct from His own spiritual law and its effect—spiritual creation. It is we who think of causation or spiritual law as if it were a merely human process actuated by God, the lawgiver or cause, believing that in this way spiritual law results in spiritual ideas and supports these ideas; whereas, instead, God is a complete unity; and in His perfect being, cause, spiritual law, and effect are forever, and at once, perfectly and continuously expressed.
Now, since God is Spirit, All-in-all, and the one lawgiver, there can be no other real law than God's law,—that is, spiritual law. It is this law which forever exists and forever supports creation; and creation includes the real or spiritual man. These are spiritual facts. Mortals may doubt them, and suffer in consequence; but divine Science has revealed them, and nothing can annul the truth. Moreover, there is no opposite to Spirit—no matter. Spirit being infinite, it alone is real substance; matter is unsubstantial, unreal. Therefore, there is no such thing as real material law. Matter and its so-called material laws are false' concepts of the human or carnal mind, which Paul said constituted "'the law of sin and death." On the other hand, the great Apostle to the Gentiles declared that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace; " and this spiritual-mindedness indicates obedience to "the law of the Spirit of life." Our Leader says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 273): "God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the wisdom of the creator."
Every healing that takes place in Christian Science results from some measure of obedience to spiritual law. The sick and the sinning are in bondage to the false belief of so-called material law. They think that matter is real and causative, and that it controls them through material law.
This belief must be destroyed if they would be healed; and it is destroyed as they understand the allness of God and His spiritual law. Referring to the command which Christ Jesus gave to his followers, Mrs. Eddy says on page 328 of Science and Health, "Understanding spiritual law and knowing that there is no material law, Jesus said: 'These signs shall follow them that believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'" The Master, himself perfectly obedient to God's law, showed his obedience in the goodness, honesty, faithfulness, humility, compassion, and purity of his life; and through this obedience he healed all manner of disease, thus annulling the so-called laws of matter. He demonstrated his understanding of and faith in God's law. In a similar way, disease and sin are being healed to-day. Whoever honestly places himself unreservedly under spiritual law, the law of God, the law of Life, Truth, and Love, is submitting to God's perfect will; and he cannot fail to receive the aid of omnipotence.
